I wanted to share this image with you. It was taken by Katie Bulmer, a student on the Fotofilia ten week “Advanced Photography” course. It was taken for the first of two assignments on the course in which the students were asked to reproduce a pre-existing image, either faithfully to the original or as a completely different version – as long as there was an obvious similarity between the two. I think Katie pulled that off, don’t you?

In case you haven’t worked it out already, the photograph is based on “Man Ray’s “El Violin De Ingres” from 1924. Katie’s model was her mom, photographed in the studio. The finishing touches to the post-production were done in class. Here’s the original for comparison…

Finishing up my little series of posts about Fotofilia’s “Downton”-themed location shoot with a few images of both models – Emilie Walt and Joel Hicks – together. Emilie and Joel are great models individually but, as they’ve proved many times in the past, they have a real (and rare) rapport when working together. Anyway, here are those images…

Emilie Walt and Joel Hicks at Haden Hill House on the Fotofilia location shoot.

Emilie Walt and Joel Hicks at Haden Hill House on the Fotofilia location shoot.

Emilie Walt and Joel Hicks at Haden Hill House on the Fotofilia location shoot.

Emilie Walt and Joel Hicks at Haden Hill House on the Fotofilia location shoot.

And one last image…

Emilie Walt and Joel Hicks at Haden Hill House on the Fotofilia location shoot.

In case you’re interested, all of these shots were taken using a 50mm f1.4 lens on my Nikon DSLR. Lighting is mainly ambient with the occasional burst of Bowens flash and judicious use of a reflector.

Finally, a HUGE thank you to Emilie (who, as previously mentioned, made two costumes for the shoot) and Joel, the lovely ladies at Haden Hill House for all of their help and coffee.

Forgive me dear readers and Fotofiles, I have sinned. The sin of sloth mainly, or at least as regards keeping this here blog furnished with up-to-the minute musings and photographic snippage. In my defence, if it is a defence, we’ve been mightily busy re-launching the Regent Parade studio, planning for the second studio – and a bit of bunking off on holiday.

But I’m back on the case now (sort of) and here’s a few images from a recent Fotofilia group shoot at the lovely Brewsmiths cafe near Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. I called the event a “Retro Cafe Shoot” and 6 intrepid photographers came along to photograph the two models, Chris Czora and Katie-May O’Hanlon, nicely attired in early 1960’s gear (including Chris wearing my 4-button jacket and shirt).

The visual inspiration was the British films of the period such as “Saturday night and Sunday morning” or “A kind of loving” with a sprinkling of recent American TV series “Mad Men” thrown in. I think we pulled it off..?

In case you’re interested, I’ve done a bit of de-saturation and film-grain-adding on most of my shots from this shoot to enhance the period movie feel.

BIG thanks to Brewsmiths for their hospitality (incl. coffee and cake), Chris and Katie-May for playing the parts, our lovely participants, and Samantha Davis of Rose & Rainbow Photography for assisting.

You may already have seen these images popping up all over social media of late but just in case you haven’t…

From time to time I like to share a project with you that I think is truly unique both in style and technique, and Berlin-based artist Sebastian Bieniek‘s amazing “Double-faced” series is one such project. The concept is deceptively simple, using an eye pencil and lipstick, Sebastian draws half a face on a model’s face and then conceals the other half of their real face from the camera. He then photographs them in everyday situations – on the train, in a cafe, in bed etc.

By kind permission of Sebastian Bieniek

By kind permission of Sebastian Bieniek

The effect is most disconcerting. Sebastian doesn’t use “photoshoppery” and doesn’t use ultra-realistic make-up to create a lifelike representation of the facial features. Far from it, the added features are “primitive” at best – and that, I think is the strength of these images.

By kind permission of Sebastian Bieniek

The viewer’s mind overcomes the very obvious falseness of the “new” side of the face and we almost – almost – accept it as real. But then we realise it’s too odd to be real and look again. These images are a kind of photographic trompe l’oeil but with the added psychological twist of their photographic realism of the portrait and setting pitched against the relative obviousness of the drawn-on features.

By kind permission of Sebastian Bieniek

By kind permission of Sebastian Bieniek

These images have, quite rightly, attracted international attention and you can find out more about Sebastian’s work via the link above or his Facebook page.

As someone who has over the years spent enough money on photographic magazines to buy a very nice car, I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to find a truly original contemporary publication online – and for free. No need to sign any forms, get out your credit card or hand over any cash.

Square Magazine has been going now for 3 years and is starting to snowball in popularity. Whether you are, like the magazine’s editor-in-chief and my good mate – Christophe Dillinger, a dyed-in-the-wool square format aficionado, or just like to see wonderfully unique and ground-breaking photography, you could do worse than start with Square magazine.

Edition 4.1 is now online and is packed with great images. It’s free! What do you have to lose?